# How to use a skills matrix for succession planning **Canonical URL:** https://skillsmatrixtemplate.com/guides/succession-planning.html **Author:** Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith **Last reviewed:** 27 May 2026 **License:** Free to cite with attribution and link back to the canonical URL. --- ## Definition Succession is about readiness, not names. The question is not "who is next" but "who can genuinely do the role, and how soon". The matrix is the evidence base. Readiness is read from real, scored capability, not a manager's hunch about potential. Band readiness simply. Ready now, ready soon (about a year), ready later, or no successor at all. ## Key takeaways - Use this guide to implement succession planning with the same 0-5 framework as the site methodology. - Write descriptors before you rate, then calibrate managers on what each level looks like in your context. - Review the matrix on a fixed cadence and date every cell when capability changes. - Separate capability ratings from performance conversations. - Link training and hiring plans to named gaps, not generic catalogues. ## Guide body ## What is the first thing to do for succession planning? World Economic Forum research finds that 39% of workers' core skills will change by 2030, and 63% of employers cite skills gaps as the top barrier (World Economic Forum, 2025). Succession is about readiness, not names. The question is not "who is next" but "who can genuinely do the role, and how soon". The matrix is the evidence base. Readiness is read from real, scored capability, not a manager's hunch about potential. Band readiness simply. Ready now, ready soon (about a year), ready later, or no successor at all. ## What is the short answer for succession planning? To use a skills matrix for succession planning, identify your critical roles, define the key skills and level each one needs, then read the matrix to see who already meets that bar (ready now), who is one level away (ready soon), and where no one is close (exposed). Track bench strength per role, fix the concentration risks, and develop successors against the gaps. In short: let the matrix tell you who can step up, who needs a year, and where you are dangerously thin. ## Why does building a skills matrix matter now? The empty chair is a risk you can see coming Critical roles fall vacant whether or not you are ready. The only choice is whether you saw it coming. With skills changing fast and reliable capability data rare, succession planning grounded in a matrix is how you on their workforce's succession on impressions, not to change by 2030, so the requirements of critical roles transformation, and unfilled critical roles are the sharpest gaps of all. The pattern is familiar by now: capability is shifting fast, the roles you are planning succession for are themselves changing, and most organisations lack the reliable data to see any of it clearly. That is how teams are caught out, a key person leaves and the scramble begins, because the "plan" was a name with nothing behind it. A skills matrix replaces that fragility with foresight. It shows you, today, which critical roles are covered and which are exposed, with enough warning to develop or recruit before the chair is empty, not after. ## What does a real team matrix look like? A succession plan, read from the matrix Here is succession planning as the matrix delivers it. For four critical roles in a team, each requiring an expert (Level 4) on its key skill, the scored capability tells us exactly who is ready now, who is ready soon, and where the bench is empty. Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends stress workforce capability visibility for adaptive organisations (Deloitte, 2025). ## WHAT THIS SUCCESSION PICTURE REVEALS? One role is genuinely healthy. Team Lead has Priya ready now and Sarah about a year away, real depth, so a vacancy there could be covered from within without drama. A dangerous concentration. Priya is the only ready-now successor for both Team Lead and Compliance Lead. If she leaves or is promoted, two critical roles lose their bench at once, a single point of failure hiding inside the plan. One role is fully exposed. Data & Insight Lead has nobody ready now or soon, mirroring the team's known Data analysis gap. This is a recruit-or develop-now decision, not a someday one. The plan writes itself. Build a second Compliance successor, accelerate the Process Improvement pair, and act on the Data role early. The matrix turned four roles into a clear, ranked set of actions. ## WHAT THE MATRIX EXPOSES? Five succession risks a matrix reveals A name-based plan hides its weaknesses; a matrix-based one exposes them. These are the five risks the evidence surfaces, each invisible on a simple list of heirs apparent. RiskWhat it looks likeThe fix No successorA critical role with no one ready now or soon Develop a successor deliberately, or recruit ahead of need Single successorA role resting on exactly one ready person, no depth Build bench strength towards around three credible successors ConcentrationOne person is the successor for several roles at once Spread readiness so a single departure does not empty several benches Heir-apparent bias A favoured name assumed ready with no capability evidence behind it Test the assumption against scored capability, not reputation Hollow middlePlenty of experts and juniors, but no one in the ready-soon band Develop mid-level people now to fill the looming gap before it opens Every one of these is the kind of risk that stays comfortably hidden until the day a critical role falls vacant, at which point it becomes an emergency. Reading succession from a skills matrix drags them into view while there is still time to act: a thin bench can be deepened, a concentration spread, an untested heir apparent checked against the evidence. The matrix does not make the decisions for you, but it makes sure you are making them with your eyes open. ## From Hunch To Evidence? The method is free. A ready-made matrix just makes readiness visible. Everything here works in a blank spreadsheet, and that is a fine place to start. A purpose-built template simply surfaces succession from the data you already hold. Score capability on the 0 to 5 scale, set each critical role's required level, and the grid shows who meets it, who is one level away, and where the bench is empty, with the Level 5 flag highlighting your strategic successors automatically. The Advanced Excel Skills Matrix shows capability against required levels at a glance, the basis for reading who is ready now, ready soon, or missing, all on the same 0 to 5 The online 5×5 builder maps a small team in your browser, with no sign-up. A fast way to read The full Excel template: heat map, required level targets, capability analytics, up to 30 people and 30 yours forever. ## Which tools on this site support succession planning? - [PulseAI (automated 0-5 collection)](/pulseai.html) ## How should you score skills on the 0-5 scale? Use the same 0-5 descriptors as the PDF and this site's methodology. Define each level in observable behaviours, not labels alone. (See HTML for 0-5 scale table.) See the [methodology pillar](/methodology.html) and [descriptor generator](/descriptor-generator.html) for policy wording. ## What should you add when implementing this online? This web guide adds live links, cited sources, and site tools around the same method as the PDF. Download [succession-planning.pdf](/assets/downloads/guides/succession-planning.pdf) for workshops; use the sections below to implement online. The [methodology pillar](/methodology.html) explains the Upleashed 0-5 framework used across 106. 5M+ assessments. Pair it with the [descriptor generator](/descriptor-generator.html) so raters share one definition of each level. The [Excel Skills Matrix Template](/template.html) (£199) implements this method with heat maps, role targets, and training-plan outputs. Template owners can start [PulseAI](/pulseai.html) for £1 in year one when they need continuous updates. Treat each section as an action checklist: agree evidence rules, run calibration, publish the grid, then review on cadence. The PDF is the narrative; this page is the implementation path with calculators and templates linked in context. The matrix is the evidence base. Readiness is read from real, scored capability, not a manager's hunch about potential. Band readiness simply. Ready now, ready soon (about a year), ready later, or no successor at all. Watch bench strength. A critical role with one possible successor, or none, is a business risk, not a plan. Beware concentration. If your one ready successor covers several roles, you have a single point of failure dressed as a pipeline. What succession planning really asks Succession planning is the discipline of making sure you have people ready to step into critical roles when they fall vacant, by choice or by surprise. Done properly it is not a list of heirs apparent; it is an evidence based read of who can genuinely do each role, and how soon. Readiness, not names The weak version of succession planning writes a name next to each senior role and calls it a plan. The strong version asks a harder question: is that person actually ready, and if not, how far away are they? Readiness is the real currency. A name with no capability behind it is a comfort blanket; a clear-eyed view of who could step up now, who needs a year of development, and who is years off is a plan you can act on and defend. The skills matrix is the evidence This is where a skills matrix changes everything. Instead of guessing who "has potential", you read readiness straight from scored capability: does this person already meet the level the role requires, on the skills that matter? The matrix turns succession from a subjective conversation into an evidenced one, grounded in what people have actually demonstrated. It is the same grid you use for gaps and development, now read against the requirements of critical roles rather than current ones. It is risk management as much as talent management Succession planning is often filed under talent development, but at heart it is risk management. A critical role with no ready successor is a live business risk, one resignation from disruption. Reading the matrix for succession surfaces exactly those risks: the roles resting on a single person, the skills only one expert holds, the pipelines that look full but all trace back to the same name. Seeing the risk is the first step to removing it, and the matrix makes it visible. The empty chair is a risk you can see coming Critical roles fall vacant whether or not you are ready. The only choice is whether you saw it coming. With skills changing fast and reliable capability data rare, succession planning grounded in a matrix is how you on their workforce's succession on impressions, not to change by 2030, so the requirements of critical roles transformation, and unfilled critical roles are the sharpest gaps of all. The pattern is familiar by now: capability is shifting fast, the roles you are planning succession for are themselves changing, and most organisations lack the reliable data to see any of it clearly. That is how teams are caught out, a key person leaves and the scramble begins, because the "plan" was a name with nothing behind it. A skills matrix replaces that fragility with foresight. It shows you, today, which critical roles are covered and which are exposed, with enough warning to develop or recruit before the chair is empty, not after. Seven steps to plan succession with a matrix This turns succession from an annual guessing exercise into a read of the evidence. Work through it in order: define the critical roles and what Identify the critical roles Start narrow. Succession planning is for roles where a sudden vacancy would genuinely hurt, leadership, specialist, regulated or single-point-of-failure positions, not every job. List those critical roles first. Trying to plan succession for everyone at once dilutes the effort and buries the roles that actually carry risk under a mass of ones that do not. WATCH OUT Planning succession for every role equally wastes effort. Define what each critical role requires For each critical role, name the key skills it depends on and the level required for each, usually Level 4, an expert who can lead and train, for a senior or specialist role. This is the bar a successor must clear. Being explicit about the required level is what lets you measure readiness objectively rather than debating who "feels" ready. WATCH OUT A role defined only by its title cannot be succeeded Read readiness from the matrix Now lay your people's scored capability against each role's requirement. Someone already at the required level is ready now; one level below on the key skills is ready soon, perhaps a year of development away; two or more below is ready later; and where no one is close, the role has no successor. This is succession planning read directly from evidence. WATCH OUT Do not confuse current performance with readiness for a different role. Read against the target role's requirements, not the ## Frequently asked questions ### How does a skills matrix help with succession planning? It replaces guesswork with evidence. By scoring capability against the level each ### What are succession readiness bands? Simple categories for how prepared a potential successor is: ready now (already meets ### What is bench strength? It is how many credible successors a critical role has, a measure of depth and risk. A ### What is concentration risk in succession planning? It is when your one ready successor is the named successor for several critical roles at ### Which roles should I succession plan for? The critical ones: roles where a sudden vacancy would genuinely hurt, leadership, ### Do I need special software for succession planning? No. A well-kept skills matrix with required levels per critical role lets you read ## FAQ ### How does a skills matrix help with succession planning? It replaces guesswork with evidence. By scoring capability against the level each ### What are succession readiness bands? Simple categories for how prepared a potential successor is: ready now (already meets ### What is bench strength? It is how many credible successors a critical role has, a measure of depth and risk. A ### What is concentration risk in succession planning? It is when your one ready successor is the named successor for several critical roles at ### Which roles should I succession plan for? The critical ones: roles where a sudden vacancy would genuinely hurt, leadership, ### Do I need special software for succession planning? No. A well-kept skills matrix with required levels per critical role lets you read ## References 1. World Economic Forum. (2025). The future of jobs report 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/ 2. Deloitte. (2025). 2025 global human capital trends. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/talent/human-capital-trends.html ## Related - [How to reduce key person dependency](https://skillsmatrixtemplate.com/guides/reduce-key-person-dependency.html) - [The skills matrix for healthcare teams](https://skillsmatrixtemplate.com/guides/healthcare.html) - [The skills matrix for care teams](https://skillsmatrixtemplate.com/guides/care-teams.html) - [How to develop team capability](https://skillsmatrixtemplate.com/guides/develop-team-capability.html)